The main current project is a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother. "Hey, Mom! Talking to my Mother" chronicles my ongoing conversation with my mother, an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2015). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.

Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.

Friday, September 30, 2016

Lately, in my re-posting frenzy, I have posted a lot of comics, mostly xkcd. But for today's re-post, a change of pace: DOONESBURY, a retrospective, and hey, there's a book!!

I am trying to gear up to do some original content, but I think I need to look ahead to next weekend or the weekend after and grow it slowly as I keep falling behind on posts and then need to work in a flurry to catch up.

Because of my grading load and school and life, I had recently fallen four day behind and posted all four entries Tuesday Sept. 27th, catching up to that day, before falling two days behind again. It's been a struggle. But not enough of one to cease the daily transmission. I may just have to alter my plans. I skipped one of my weekly features (the weekly poem) for an easier post. I may do this more often rather than letting myself fall four days behind.

However, I also like to jump on things I find on the Interwebs and post them excitedly soon after finding them. And so, this...

I came across this item this morning, and I love it. Drumpf is the perfect nickname for Trump, and Garry Trudeau has known all along about the danger of the Drumpf.

The Doonesbury Trump retrospective proves that Garry Trudeau had Drumpf's number all along

On September 14, 1987, Garry B Trudeau ran the first Doonesbury strip that mentioned Donald Trump, in which his characters marvel that New York's "loudest and most visible asshole" had floated a political trial balloon, hinting that he would run for president; thus began 30 years of marveling at, mocking, and skewering Der Drumpf, so rattling the Short-Fingered Vulgarian that he felt the need to issue a series of wounded denunciations. Now, just in time for the election, Trudeau has released a collection of his Trump-themed strips, Yuge: 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump, just the thing to put the Republican nominee on tilt.

The first thing to know about Trudeau's Trump strips is that they're funny as hell. As Trudeau writes in his introduction, Trump is a "gift beyond imagining" to comedians (everyone knows this now, but Trudeau recognized this fact when Trump was still in larval form, still developing his ovipositors and tentacles), and Trudeau does not waste one dram of the comedic potential of the thin-skinned, self-regarding, self-unaware blowhard alleged billionaire who is now in the running to gain control of the world's largest nuclear arsenal.

That's the second thing you need to know about these strips: they're definitely in the ha-ha-only-serious realm. Trudeau has an unerring nose for Trumpian bullshit (years before the tax-return business, his characters were wryly noting that the billions Trump claimed in his net worth surely included billions for his "brand"). He spotted the Trump University scam from day one -- and mercilessly slammed it with the comic-strip equivalent of John Oliver's best Trump material -- and years before that, he was making great hay out of Trump Airlines.

After all, Trump is the man who spent millions on a luxury yacht he christened the Trump Princess, then his "fear of ocean travel kept it moored off his various failing casinos" (Trudeau gives his Hunter Thompson avatar, Duke, the job of captaining the Princess, natch). That's before you get into the comedic potential of his stupid TV show, his creepy sexual remarks about his own daughter, his string of tawdry affairs, and so on, and so on.

Every four years, Trump has postured about a presidential run, and every four years, Trudeau pricked his bubble. Now, it's up to all of us. But Trudeau hasn't abandoned us: the 2015 strips show us that Trump has physical comedy potential to meet-and-beat rubberfaced comedians like Jim Carrey -- Trudeau's pen transforms him into a medusa-coiffed low-budg Rodney Dangerfield with a wicked case of Dunning-Kruger and a shitty attitude. There have been many election-season caricatures of Trump, but Trudeau's been doing this for 30 years. He's practically the court artist of Castle Trump, and no one can beat him (not even Trump, whose capacity for self-parody can't be overstated).

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Sure we're blurry in the above picture, but I like the stark lighting.

Making time for another talking to you post, which is the most like our daily conversations I manage. I missed last week.

THE USUAL STUFF

It never gets old. I miss you. I miss talking to you. I miss listening to you. I miss your smile. I miss your laugh. I miss your love for chocolate mints, ice cream, and Chinese food. I miss how important holidays were to you. I miss celebrating your birthday with you, which is next week, and I have a special surprise just for you.

STUFF WITH DAD

I am so blessed that I get to do things with the Big Guy. He was with me last week power washing and staining the deck as seen HERE - Hey Mom #448, in case you missed it, Mom.

I am fortunate that Dad will help me do things around my house, and I doubly fortunate that he is still here, and we can do things together. He's still my main connection to you.

Guided Meditation, Frequency 528, AMSR, Hypnosis, etc.

Lately, I have been exploring meditation and other similar means to handle stress and whatever life may throw at me. I find guided meditation relaxing. I am curious about the uses of hypnosis. Liesel recommended the Solfeggio frequency 528 Hz, the miraculous frequency for transformation and DNA repair. It's quite powerful. But then I also found ASMR, which I am beginning to like very much, especially as a sleep aid. There's some beautiful people creating some truly artistic and wonderful things with ASMR, binaural recordings, and isochronic tones.

SCHOOL UPDATE

My schooling, my personal study, is going well, though not as well as I would like, but then what else is new? I am finding as much time as I can to devote it. But it's going well. I am learning, and I am liking what I am learning (Discrete Mathematics).

MORE?

I am sure I could find more to say. This is not a very exciting update, Mom, I know, but it's all I have right now.

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Hi Mom, No poem this week. I am opting for the next installment of the How to Write a Persuasive Essay item instead.

I have been threatening to put my "because-should thesis" method online for some time. I did some Google searching a while back on thesis statements, but I did not find that anyone had specifically invented the same format for writing thesis statements for persuasive essays.

I should preface these remarks with the caveat that not all thesis statements need to be framed in the "because-should" form. But most arguments --potentially all arguments -- for persuasive essays are best formed in a problem-solution form. Describing the problem part with reasons or causes in a "because" clause, then naturally leads to a call for action in a solution part of the sentence, a "should" clause. A problem statement alone lacks an answer to "so what?" What should be done about this problem? Whereas a solution statement alone lacks the answer to the natural "why" question, why legalize marijuana or whatever the call to action may be.

I have developed my ideas about thesis statements and "because-should" thesis statements in particular since I originally wrote the explanations contained herein, but I will save those remarks for future posts. This post contains the nitty of the gritty, the basics of the form and the basics of the reasons for the form.

As always my remarks are written as if I am lecturing to you in my class because, well, I am.

If you are new to my blog, brought here by some Internet searching for how to write a thesis, WELCOME! Feel free to explore, meet my Mom to whom this is written (Hi Mom), and leave me comment! Thanks for stopping by.

If you're a regular reader other than my Mom, then you know what I am all about, but thanks for stopping in, also.

Here are the links to the previous three installments of this feature.

THESIS STATEMENTS ARE REQUIRED:The WHOLE point of the academic, persuasive writing we're
doing is to emphasize the necessity of a thesis. Without a thesis, your paper
would have no focused argument and thus would lack purpose.

THESIS IS MORE THAN AN ATTENTION-GETTING
TOOL: Though a thesis can be used to
ensnare the reader's attention and keep it, the true purpose of the thesis is
to provide the argument the writer will make in the introduction so as to focus
and structure the essay.

LIKE A COURT OF LAW NOT A MURDER MYSTERY: A persuasive paper is not like a murder mystery, a whodunit.
You do not wait to reveal the thesis at the end of the paper.

Think
of a paper as a court of law and YOU, the writer, are a defense attorney. Would
you start your case by saying, "I am not going to tell you whether my
client is guilty or not guilty. I want you to figure it out for yourself."

um....
no.

You
would instead say something like, "My client is not guilty, and after you
have heard the evidence I will present, and seen the holes that I will rend in
the prosecutor's argument and evidence, you will reach the same conclusion that
my client could not have murdered Lindsay Lohan (as much as we all wish he
had)."

Thesis statements may take many
different forms. One thing that they all have in common (or should have in
common) is that they are all ARGUMENTS.

A thesis is an argument.

Often textbooks for composition
courses muddy the waters by being vague directions and dancing around the thesis subject by explaining that it (a thesis) delivers the “controlling idea” or that a thesis
delivers the “point of the paper” or the paper’s “main idea.” I am here to make
this simple. In this class, you must write an ARGUMENT, an opinion, a statement
with which someone could (and probably will) disagree. Yes, this statement is
the controlling idea, the main idea, the point. Yes, it will contain an essay
map, it will be concise, and it will be placed at the end of the introduction.

But let’s not equivocate. It’s AN
ARGUMENT.

It cannot be a question, a statement
of fact, or something that does not need to be proven.

If you write the thesis as a proper
argument, it will need to be PROVEN (supported with evidence).

Students often find the composition
of the thesis difficult (especially before writing the paper). REMEMBER, at
this stage, you are creating a preliminary thesis, a working thesis. As you
write your paper, your thesis may change. In fact, if you apply yourself to
this work as you should, it probably will change.

HOW TO USE THE
BECAUSE-SHOULD THESIS METHOD.

One way I try to help you to create
a strong thesis is to give you a format for the thesis, like a formula. You can
plug in your material to my formula, and you will have a ready-made, argumentative thesis. It’s impossible to come out of this process without a
thesis in a strong problem-solution form.

The formula uses the words BECAUSE
and SHOULD to structure the sentence. In the “because” part, you give the
reasons for the problem, and in the “should” part, you describe what “should be
done,” which is the solution. The sentence can be written with either the
because part first and the should second or the other way around. Each paper
subject will alter which part of the sentence should come first (the most
important part) and which should come second.

As you create these parts, you are
also writing the ESSAY MAP. You are sharing with the reader the topics you will
explore to support your claim that this problem should be solved. In some
cases, you have to argue more substantially that the problem exists, and in
other cases, you devote more time to the solution as the problem is more self
evident.

The formula looks like this

1.because of problem x, so and so
should do Y

2.so and so should do X because of
problems y and z

Not all thesis statements need to use
this formula, but they will be better for it.

I will now share some key ideas to
remember and examples.

KEY IDEAS

USE DETAIL IN YOUR THESIS STATEMENT

preview SUBJECT & topic
sentences

essay map

Examples of thesis statements using the because-should method
follow in the table. The table below shows examples with and without the
because-should thesis formula.

Thesis
Statments

Problem
+

Solution
=

Because
Clause +

Reasons
+

Should
Clause +

Describe
Solution

Formula
Complete!

Example
without

Trust is the most important
element in any marriage; without trust, a marriage may not survive.

Example
with

Because trust is the most important element in a marriage, both
partners should work together in an open dialogue to nurture and
maintain trust, even if this means attending couple's therapy.

Example
without

The Vietnam War was useless.

Example
with

Because of the great loss of human life, wasted resources, and
ultimate failure to achieve the stated goals, the Vietnam War should
be re-assessed historically as a useless military invasion.

Example
without

Gun crimes take a great many
innocent lives unnecessarily.

Example
with

Because gun crimes are so rampant in our country and criminals
don't care where they are when they commit gun crimes, states should
change the laws restricting concealed weapons permits.

Parents should help pay for sports
in which their children participate.

Example
with

School districts should
institute a pay-to-play sports program requiring parents whose children
participate in sports to offset a portion of the expense because of
the budget constraints in most school systems and because a
disproportionate amount of money is usually allocated to sports despite the
small number of students who participate in them.

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

It's a special blessing, a gift, to be able to get with my Dad and do this work together just as we used to do when we lived together, starting when I was a young boy. We should commemorate one work day by seeing a film after as we did the day Dad took me to see Jaws after working all day, a film I did not think I would be allowed to see due its graphic violence. That was 1975, and I was very sensitive and impressionable 13 years old.

And so we're work, and I treasure this time with Dad.

And now the boring photos.

First, power washing.

Then picking out a color and making sure Liesel approves.

And then we start to apply stain with edging and railings.

And then we begin to roll on the stain.

And then I forget to take a picture midway through rolling, so we're done!

There's some spots I missed but you can't see the big one on the post.Also, there's a little grey peeking through on board edges. It may stay that way unless it drives me mad.

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

I was watching sports news and getting ready for football Sunday this morning when news broke that Miami Marlins pitcher José Fernandez had been killed the night before in a boating accident.

I will have more on this subject later, but the hits keep on coming in 2016, which is a year of many significant and tragic deaths, a time period that for me stretches back to July of 2015.

I am cheating a little, since I am posting back in time, and this screen capture image is from Monday September 26th and a game versus the New York Mets. But the image is so powerful despite the fact that I could not find one that was not a video thumb nail.

More later.

But for now, just stunned silence and deep sadness for José Fernandez, his family, his teammates, and everyone who has died since July of 2015.

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Donald Trump’s campaign chair in a prominent Ohio county has claimed there was “no racism” during the 1960s and said black people who have not succeeded over the past half-century only have themselves to blame.

Kathy Miller, who is white and chair of the Republican nominee’s campaign in Mahoning County, made the remarks during a taped interview with the Guardian’s Anywhere but Washington series of election videos.

If you’re black and you haven’t been successful in the last 50 years, it’s your own fault. You’ve had every opportunity

Kathy Miller

“If you’re black and you haven’t been successful in the last 50 years, it’s your own fault. You’ve had every opportunity, it was given to you,” she said.

“You’ve had the same schools everybody else went to. You had benefits to go to college that white kids didn’t have. You had all the advantages and didn’t take advantage of it. It’s not our fault, certainly.”

Miller also called the Black Lives Matter movement “a stupid waste of time” and said lower voter turnout among African Americans could be related to “the way they’re raised”.

Her comments risk further alienating African American voters from Trump in the crucial swing state. No Republican president has reached the White House without also winning Ohio, a state in which 12.7% of the population is black.

Trump has repeatedly stumbled in his push to attract black voters, an effort that began with his declaration last month that African Americans have “nothing to lose” by voting for him.

Mahoning, the eastern Ohio county where Miller is coordinating Trump’s campaign, is a historically Democratic stronghold that includes Youngstown, a former steel city that has experienced decades of economic decline.

The county is reputedly “ground-zero” for disaffected white, working-class Democrats who are drawn to Trump’s promise to boost manufacturing by renegotiating international free-trade agreements.

Before the primaries, some 6,000 Democrats in Mahoning switched party affiliation to Republican, reportedly to vote for Trump.

Miller, a real estate broker, said that the Democrats switching over to her party were mostly older, white voters.

She said there were “some” African Americans but played down their importance, suggesting they were only a small portion of the population and do not tend to turn out in elections in significant numbers.

African Americans constitute 16% of Mahoning county’s population, which is larger than the state and national average.

During the past two presidential elections, voter turnout in Ohio was actually higher among black people than white people.

Miller, however, suggested low turnout among black people could be connected to culture. “I don’t think that’s part of the way they’re raised,” she said. “For us, I mean, that was something we all did in our families, we all voted.”

Miller also dismissed the racial tensions of the 1960s, when she said she graduated from high school. “Growing up as a kid, there was no racism, believe me. We were just all kids going to school.”

Asked about segregation and the civil rights movement, she replied: “I never experienced it. I never saw that as anything.”

Miller added: “I don’t think there was any racism until Obama got elected. We never had problems like this ... Now, with the people with the guns, and shooting up neighborhoods, and not being responsible citizens, that’s a big change, and I think that’s the philosophy that Obama has perpetuated on America.”

Miller dismissed the suggestion that Trump was exploiting racist or prejudiced views among some voters as “the media making stuff up”. Instead, she said of the Republican nominee: “He’s very willing to talk about issues that have never been discussed publicly.”

When it was pointed out that some people might find her remarks offensive, Miller replied: “I don’t care, it’s the truth.”

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

I am Christopher Tower the gmr

I am Christopher Tower (or Chris), and I am a writer of stuff. I live in Michigan. I play Ultimate, ride a bike, and supposedly educate college persons while myself being educated in college. I am married with two kids, a beagle, a curly lab, and a grouchy black cat. I like sushi. I love all SF, fantasy, comic books, D&D, board games, and Gnosticism. I am a Jungian. I am currently studying computer science at WMU.

Satchel

SENSE OF DOUBT STATUS AS OF 0705.04 - 16:45

Sense of Doubt is not currently dedicated to any themes or special interest. The subject matter is mine and may range from comic books to ultimate or from Baseball to feminist-centered media criticism. Until I feel I have enough content for multiple blogs, or until I am seized with a desire to create multiple blogs, this is it, and appropriately so. "Sense of Doubt" came about in Bowie’s Berlin period and the dark, ambient collaborations with Brian Eno. Like the Bowie of 1978, I have my own darkness that steals over me and through me, infecting everything. At the risk of sounding far too melodramatically obsessed with my own self-flagellations, this blog dedicates itself to that darkness, that infection. But it’s fun, too. Hey, I can be amusing? Or not. It’s the way of the [w]rench. Neurosis compelling action in insecure double-checking and misunderstanding evasions. It is my way.

More from the original description text that needed editing in 2015: Furthermore, Sense of Doubt is dedicated to the random. The theme is no theme. Just questions, doubt, and uncertainty. Feel the power of not knowing the answer. So dedicated on the last day of July 2006 by the Galactic Monkey Wrench.

The Blog about my job

It's about how my identity was taken from me by the powers that think they be, an identity, a job, I held for ten years. Go there if curious.

the galactic monkey wrench

The Galactic Monkey Wrench

This is the logo of the Galactic Monkey Wrench. I was given the nickname Galactic Monkey Wrench in college by a friend of mine who felt that I threw the monkey wrench into the cosmos at every available opportunity. Later, in discussions with my best friend, who isthe Lord of Chaos (the Loc), he asked for my title and when I told him, without thinking, he blurted out "the gmr!" Since this was random and we appreciate randomness, I became the gmr, even though technically I should be the gmw. But gmw sounds like a car or some industrial manufacturing firm that makes a strange widget of which one has never heard.
This acronym fetish may make no sense to anyone else, but my friend and I are quite driven to provide acronyms for many things. At the very least, it allows us to keep our conversations obscure and often private as no one knows about what we're talking.

Sense of Doubt Rare video

the gmrstudios repository of doubt

Christopher Tower's Facebook Posts

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